What Syria Policy?

The other thing about the Pelosi story is that I don’t even understand which Syria policy Pelosi is supposed to have violated. We have diplomatic relations with Syria. Bush has not sought to change that fact. Nor has he sought new sanctions against Syria. He ordered our ambassador to come home, he ordered the State Department to cease contacts with Syria’s ambassador in the US, and proclaimed there would be no high-level executive branch contacts. This policy has accomplished nothing in terms of Syrian behavior vis-a-vis Iraq, nothing in terms of Syrian behavior vis-a-vis Lebanon, and nothing in terms of Syrian behavior vis-a-vis Iran. It’s a stupid, pointless policy.

But that’s the policy. If Bush wants to institute a new policy wherein members of congress or members of the press can’t go to Syria — or can go, but can’t speak to officials of the Syrian government — he needs to ask congress to pass such a law, since the president isn’t a God-King who gets to just arbitarily decide where people can go or who they can talk to.